


Pretend It's Okay

by Chimera428



Category: Supercat - Fandom, Supergirl (TV 2015), supersanta2017 - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fix It Fic, Fluff, implied kara/james, implied kara/mon el, implied marsden/vasquez, prompt, season 1 with season 2 plot points, season1 with season 3 plot points, spoilers for season 2 and season 3, supercat secret santa prompt, supersanta2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-17 21:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13086078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chimera428/pseuds/Chimera428
Summary: Cat/Kara (Supercat)Person A is in love with a Person B but B is getting married. A moves away because they can't bare to see B married to someone who isn't them





	Pretend It's Okay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Onehellagaykid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehellagaykid/gifts).



> Hopefully I've done this prompt justice even if it varies from it's exactness a bit... Merry Christmas!

“I’m going to marry Kara and there’s nothing you can do about it Mothe-” The communication between Earth and the Daxamite mothership cut out but not soon enough to seclude Mon-El’s outburst from behind his mother and whatever she was threatening now. With that unprecedented declaration, however, Cat could only find herself standing there blinking into the void of the screen.

Olivia rounded the desk behind Cat after the woman eased down into a nearby chair, having seen the rigidity of her frame and the sudden blanch of her skin tone.

“Kitty?”

Cat was still searching the void as the words from Mon-El echoed around her brain. The great Cat Grant had done it again, trying to seek the world and its wonders, under the guise of needing to do more, to find what she was missing in her life. When really she had just run away from what she had found, from the woman who had ended a search inside of herself she hadn’t realized she was seeking until it was too late.

First with her son, then James and now with some alien wonder boy that she knew Kara could do far better than.

Third time’s a charm they say; and what a charm indeed.

“Cat?” Olivia tried again, breaking the other woman’s eye line with the screen with her body causing Cat to flinch as she drew in a breath and made as if she hadn't just zoned out.

"It's nothing."

"My alien ass it was nothing." Olivia grabbed a chair, dragging it close as she looked to her friend. There was no use in pushing, if Cat wanted to tell her she would. If not she would obfuscate and misdirect the subject matter elsewhere.

This one rare moment Cat had chosen not to, bottom lip pulling into the vice of her teeth a moment before she dared look back at Olivia across from her.

"I lost her."

Olivia was confused for only a moment before the realization dawned on her and her posture eased into one not of inquiry but supportive sympathy.

"Catherine... it can't be that finite. You haven't spoken to Supergirl, she may not-"

Cat shook her head, giving a wry smile with a slight shake of her head. "No, I've squandered and tucked tail. I should have known, I did know I just..."

"Got scared," Cat nodded, "and ran. Sounds vaguely familiar, although I remember you telling me to suck it up and deal or something along those lines when it came to a particular secret service agent who took a position with the DEO to make it easier on us both."

Cat let out a breath, giving a curt nod. "Susan."

"And I remember you telling me to go get her else I would regret it."

"There wasn't another person in the picture Olivia. It was just you two idiots being stubborn and politics and what if she really loves him?"

"Like you really love her?"

Olivia reached over, taking one of Cat's hands into her own and squeezing gently. Just as she started to say something more Cat's phone rang, drawing her attention to it as she pulled her hand out of Olivia's grasp.

"What in the hell..."

"Who is it?"

Both women could only stare as Lillian Luthor's name blazed across the screen.

**\-------**

 

 

"Why did no one know that thrift store excuse for a Queen had Kryptonite in her blood?!" Cat was practically yelling, watching as Kara took blow after blow from Rhea, watching her weaken and falter but get up just the same.

Cat was within the depths of the DEO, having been dropped off via Superman with Olsen before the upper floors of CatCo collapsed from the damage. Olivia herself was there relaying additional commands to the US ground forces battling away with the aid of Superman, Martians, and rogue Daxamites in an effort to beat back the invasion.

It was then that the room grew quiet, Lena rushing up from an area Cat had remembered was designated for detainees, Winn hot on her heels along with what looked like a DEO extraction team taking up additional posts around the room.

"The device is ready.."

Cat turned hearing her nieces' voice, the pair holding each other's gaze for a long moment until Lena formally addressed the President.

"My mother is secure and the lead trigger. Supergirl is the only one..."

"Supergirl..." Alex stated, seeing the alarms going off on all screens, agents calling out target acquisitions and new Daxamite ships appearing all over as if they had never been hindered. "They've locked onto every school, hospital, and municipal building in the city. They're going to destroy everything."

For countless seconds the room watched as Kara spoke to Rhea and Mon-El nodded.

Until the Daxamite ships began to turn, soldiers falling mid-fight but most of all, and Rhea was on her knees suddenly gasping for air. Cat felt fingers filter through her own, squeezing tightly before she looked to their owner, squeezing Lena's hand back just as fiercely before turning to the screens.

The entire room stood stock still as they watched the display, not of the retreat, but of Kara and Mon-El.

"Alex tell me what to do!"

Cat felt her eyes close, turning away from the visual, she felt Lena's grip tighten but pulled away just the same.

Weeks went by before the dust seemed to settle, enough that Kara had paid a visit to Cat, appearing heartbroken and dismayed. Kara's words had stung but held valiant truth to them.

"You have hit a bit of an obstacle but you will soar right over it... just like I would," Cat recalled her words and wondered how she had managed to get them out. Who was she kidding, she knew how. She knew she had for Kara's sake, despite the familiarity of their conversation, the spark held between them that despite either of their positions was still there under a surface of pain and a belief that neither of them was worthy of whatever it was Cat knew they both felt but were constantly refusing to acknowledge.

It was almost as bad as Kara pretending not to be Supergirl again and Cat pretending still not to know, even when she had known in the days following the first cover article she had published with Kara on the cover.

She had known at the party they had thrown, she had known when Kara rushed off during the days as her assistant, when she had brought Adam back into her life, when she had saved Carter, when Cat had told her in this very same office what felt like eons ago now that she needed to dive. Cat had always, always known.

Perhaps if she had worked up the courage before now she might have let Kara know everything. If she had just told her on that balcony that night she told the woman to remove her glasses, as a means of a peace offering; a segue into telling Kara she knew who she was. That Kara could trust in Cat's knowledge of that precious secret by offering up one of her own.

Instead, Kara had been called away, for good reason and Cat had convinced herself she would have other opportunities, other moments, other times when she would finally let Kara know how she felt.

Then the two Kara's incident had occurred and Cat knew, then and there, Kara was not ready, may not ever be ready to allow that knowledge of who she really was being openly shared with someone the likes of Cat. With it, Cat had closed her heart, hidden her feelings and just let Kara be, well, Kara until perhaps, the heroine would come to her. When she was ready, and Cat swore then would that occur, she wouldn't hold back and tell her Supergirl just how much she meant to the Ice Queen of All Media.

But the Universe has a cruel way of forcing one's hand, pushing and prodding until the very world had nearly ended with Myriad and just when she had convinced herself a second time to let Kara know without an expectation of exchange in secrets, she had found James and Kara in his office.

That was when she had decided, that was when she had run, giving her company over to the man who seemingly made Kara happy. A trusted ally while she, she would work on salvaging her lost heart while ensuring Kara was taken care of even without her around. An absurd thought when one considered whom exactly Cat was apparently protecting with such a gesture.

Then again, happiness for any individual was a fleeting creature, and even if she couldn't be happy with Kara, Kara could at least be happy and unhindered by any residual emotional tether she might have formed with Cat beyond the professional.

Cat's suspicions that there had been something, just under the surface with Kara in regards to herself and any element of a future the pair might have considered together were made apparent the night she left. She had been visited by both women, mild-mannered reporter and confident hero of National City. Each saying their goodbyes. Each pulling at her heart. While Cat had been on the verge of confessing one final time, she had realized, with both sides of Kara's persona making a point to bid her farewell, Kara was still two separate people, divided and still trying to reconcile both halves.

Now here they were, a year or so later and both better and worse for the wear of it. Kara had come into herself and her humanity, she was forging a path beyond her heroic moniker and yet still, after everything, from the President to the DEO, Kara still pretended like everything was as before and that she was simply a mild-mannered reporter despite the striking parallels between her breakup story she had fed Cat moments ago and Supergirl's own heartbreak over Mon-El weeks prior.

Her cell phone buzzed from her desk and with a sigh, she was up and had the object to her ear without glancing at the screen.

"Cat Gr- Olivia?" Cat's brow furrowed before she turned sharply, looking at the muted news feeds along her wall, feeling her shoulders drop as the chyron operator relayed the latest out of Washington. "President Marsden confirms she is seeking WorldWide Media Mogul as newest candidate for Press Secretary."

"Don't you think you should have discussed this with me before you let the press run with it?!" Cat growled, watching as other networks ticked over to the latest news. "If nothing else I'm getting scooped by my competition Olivia!"

Cat spun back around, eyes scouring the floor outside her office. "What do you mean I broke it first... who?"

The name she heard on the other end sapped the strength from Cat's limbs, her body sinking into her chair as the President continued on although Cat couldn't hear her for the blood rushing through her ears like a waterfall.

Snapper was in her office a second later, followed by James, both of them arguing with each other over the fact that again Kara Danvers had some miracle source for yet another article and James had allowed it to be published without going through Snapper or even Cat. While James continued to defend himself and that his hand was forced, as something this big should be relayed by the namesake in question not the Daily Planet or any other news outlet.

Cat set her phone down, looking at the two men realizing they hadn't heard her as they continued to squabble. Her mind was blank and her emotions were as tumultuous as a hurricane and with a slap of her hand on her desk, she silenced the both of them. "GENTLEMEN...."

James actually straightened defensively while Snapper had sense enough to take a step back with her look.

"Apologizes Madam President." She hissed, causing the two men to look sheepish before she glanced beyond them to the figure hovering just beyond the windows across the bullpen before they became a blur of blue and red.

"I accept the offer... and will announce as much this evening, here at CatCo, in my office, with my own press conference. "

"You won't regret it Cat, I promise."

Cat refused to respond, knowing deep down she already did before turning her attention to the two men in front of her and raising a high brow.

"Chop-chop gentlemen, we have news to make."

**\-------**

 

 

Kara meandered through her apartment in the early hours of the morning getting ready for work. The tv was set on CNN as the anchor was going over the freakishly cold weather that had gripped the majority of the country just in time for the holidays. Even if Kara couldn’t fully discern the temperature difference like most everyone else she knew, it was a nice change from the rainy days that usually swept across National City around this time.

It reminded her of home, where there were more than two seasons. As the unusual weather report on this particular news outlet shifted, she was also very much aware of what else the cold weather reminded her of. Poised and polished as ever, hair flawless, determination set in her gaze. U.S. Press Secretary Cat Grant stepped up to the podium for this morning’s press briefing.  Only this time Kara noted the differences immediately and realized Cat was not in the White House proper. The podium was different, as well as the backdrop and as she tucked in her shirt on her way to the bathroom to finish up, Kara assumed it was some special location publicity thing for the holidays.

Kara had yet to miss one of Cat’s briefings, save for when she was otherwise occupied by some crisis within the city that pulled her attention away. Ever since she had forcibly let Cat go so many months ago; what with breaking all her own rules and publishing what she had overheard President Marsden relay to her assistant at the DEO during the Daxamite crisis about seeking Cat out for the job she currently held.

There had been a part of her then, that while still reeling from her own actions and the resulting consequences, had come to a far greater realization about that year without Cat. James had been something ideological, something she had confused the other woman’s advice about diving in. Mon-El had been a distraction from herself, he had been something to settle with, an excuse and a bandage to attempt to rid herself of the feelings that had surrounded her and Cat for far longer than she was willing to admit.

Somewhere along the way of saving the world and trying to save herself she had finally understood why Cat had left the first time. What the intention was and inevitably the result that Kara hadn’t realized until she herself had been faced with the same situation. Aided of course by her own sister’s journey into truths forced into dormancy and now many a conversation with Lena.

It had been one of those conversations recently when the pair were sorting through CatCo and she had allowed herself to return to help her friend, that even more truths had been revealed. Not the least of which was the reason why Lena had such insight into Kara’s former boss. It seemed everyone in Kara’s life was a mess of secrets, and for so long she had led herself to believe hers was riddled with the greatest burden.

Regardless, when the weight of that admission had slammed into her and all the parts Cat had played with her return to National City and everything else fit into the bigger picture, Kara knew what she had done months prior had been the right thing. Even if she hadn’t known at the time why it had been.

Cat had let her go, so both women could try to find themselves, and as such Kara knew she had to do the same. She could’ve easily asked Cat to stay, even after the President had offered the position she had in mind for Cat to her. Kara had wanted to ask her to stay, in some vain attempt to understand and maybe even to hide all over again. Knew without a doubt with the way Lena had told her how Cat had left the DEO that day that she still harbored something for Kara deep down.

Not unlike Kara herself after she had let Cat go on to bigger and better things.

She had known the moment she put her name to the article what would happen, knowing Cat might not understand, that she would see it as some kind of slight instead of what Kara had intended it to be. Even if Kara couldn’t formulate her intentions into logical reasoning beyond something that had to be done for the both of them.

Kara had to let Cat go.

Both women needed a kind of reset, a clearing of their own slates on their own terms. Another chance, another step in a line of many to find each other without the end of the world hanging over them, forcing them to admit things neither were entirely ready for.

It had been one of the hardest decisions in her life and only until after everything that had transpired in the following months did Kara truly understand what her intuition had been telling her. They had needed to live, to step beyond the boundaries of their own limitations in life so that maybe, when the time was right, they would find the whole of themselves and in turn find each other thereafter.

She watched Cat step off the podium, concluding the debriefing before gathering her keys and slipping out the door. It was odd when she thought about it, how in those months since they had seen each other last how their roles had been somewhat reversed. Kara had found her humanity after nearly destroying it while Cat had become a superhero in her own right not only with her actions during the invasion but as a constant voice to the American people.

As she stepped out into the snow she couldn’t help but wrap her jacket tighter, watching the vapor of her breath swirl around herself in the snow. Trudging along Kara once again could only hope, maybe soon that Cat would be back. If not, she just might have to take a sabbatical herself like Lena was constantly on her about.

Before she knew it she was downtown, thoughts of Cat still swirling on the edges of her mind while the snowstorm ravaging National City had taken a harsher turn, forcing her to detour into an all too familiar haunt. There must have been something in the air, be it the nostalgia often wrought from the holiday season or maybe the briefing this morning and the mischievous expression Cat had throughout it.  Kara had remembered that look when it was reserved for her and couldn't help but wonder who it was for now.

At one point during her walk to work, she had sworn a car was following her, and an odd sense of exhilaration had enveloped her when she turned a corner early and they had slowly driven past, only to continue onward. Of course, now that was replaced with seeing the place she and Cat had a first "date" that wasn't a date officially but she always considered it one.

Noonan’s was as busy as ever, filled with people trying to warm up given the weather and with a melancholy smile Kara found herself in line, already intent on ordering that which had been ‘the usual’ for years while looking at the very space she and Cat had occupied that one evening.

She hadn't stepped foot in the place, not since the last order she had gotten for Cat the day she left. 

The trill of her cell phone broke through her recall, and already she assumed it was James or maybe even Lena wondering where she was despite her usual punctuality. With the sound images of her and Cat at the benched seats faded back into her memory as she thumbed the screen to answer without looking.

"Danvers.."

"Hello, Supergirl…” For a moment the whole world ceased to turn. The voice on the other end holding no fear or trepidation, just absolution, and something else, something Kara hadn’t heard since- “Kara?"

Kara had stepped out of line the moment she answered, absently setting her things down at their booth, only to stop as Cat's tone made her whole body pull to attention from the very core of her being upward. When Cat didn't continue, she pushed her phone that much closer to her ear to listen, trying to pinpoint the woman's exact location given any background noise of a clue that she might be granted.

"Look up."

Kara blinked with the instruction, looking around frantically before seeing Cat through the glass between the snowfall across the street under an awning. The other woman dropped the phone from her ear while Kara remained rooted to the spot, even when she heard the phone call disconnect.

Never once did she blink, her bag, jacket, even her phone forgotten as Kara moved through the place she used to work when the world was new and far less complicated and rife with pain. The place she watched this Queen, her Queen, walk into her castle every day for a year before getting the courage up enough to apply for a job.

A job that had put her in that very castle, one that had given her the courage to embrace her Rao given right, and gave her another that forced that Queen to leave. Forced Kara to grow up and embrace the truth of herself and her heart despite all the trials she had been faced with.

She didn't feel the wind, the snow, any of it, the world seemed to fade away save for the hyperfocal point of one Catherine Jane Grant standing under an awning, across the street in the snow like she had the very first time Kara had laid eyes on her.

The car horn to her left pulled her attention away, ignoring the thing as it continued forward, knowing it couldn't hurt her even as it skidded to a stop and whispered against her thigh. It had only been a split second but when she looked back Cat was gone.

Her world dropped away for a second, then two, then three of her heartbeats before she felt fingers wrap around her bicep.

Cat forced her aside in that next moment, having pulled herself from the curb when she had seen the oncoming car in an attempt to warn Kara of it only to watch her just stand there. The stark reality of who she was and how willing she was to expose herself now after denying Cat that for so long pulled at the woman's insides painfully.

Kara didn't hesitate, already twisting around, leading with her hip as her body collided with Cat's, an arm already around the woman's waist as she pulled her closer. Her other hand threaded through Cat's hair, pushing snow dampened strands from her face.

Cat let out a soft 'oh' somewhere in her throat, reaching for Kara's glasses, pulling them from her face and revealing those impossibly blue eyes from behind the fog of her lenses.

"It -is- you..."

Kara stood, her shirt nearly transparent from the snow, rinsing away the charade of being human to the woman in her grasp. Kara watched the truth of herself wash over Cat's expression, filling her eyes and painting her cheeks pink like it had so many times before until Kara couldn't stand it anymore and dove in.

Cat clutched the fold of Kara's glasses, fingers filtering through Kara's ponytail in an attempt to wrap around her neck as she was thoroughly, openly ravished by Kara's kiss. She pulled in a sharp breath on the edge of the snow, allowing Kara to chase the sound inside with the impossibly velveteen length of her tongue.

Cat's body arched towards Kara's, held tighter by the woman's arm around her hips before her fingers twisted, using Kara's ponytail as an anchor to pull herself up on. Kara gasped at her, letting her control slip as Cat licked her way inside and made the alien woman melt with a low hum of appreciation.

Another horn honk went ignored, followed by a third and fourth, mingled with shouts from angry drivers and hollers of encouragement from onlookers who finally realized who exactly was standing in the middle of National City's elite business district in a cacophony of sound around the two women.

Cat actually grinned against Kara's mouth, barely able to touch the ground even on her toes as Kara bent her over, refusing to relinquish her mouth or her body despite the world coming back into focus around them. Her arms wrapped around Kara's shoulders, feeling as weightless as the snow free-falling from the sky.

Kara pulled her bottom lip between her teeth gently, only letting Cat go when she was thoroughly red and swollen. Nosing her way across her features, hugging her body close and relishing in the way they fit while Cat snagged her collar, pulling her closer still as she tucked her head down beneath Kara's chin, trying to remember how to breathe normally.

The taller woman closed her eyes, pressing her cheek against the crown of Cat's head, thanking Rao for whatever she had done to warrant this perfect moment. Even if was just only ever going to be that, a moment.

With a deep Kara filled breath, Cat laid her head against Kara's chest, listening to the strong triple pulse of the woman's heart, her hand pressed against it, looking at the glasses in the circle of her forefinger and thumb as she closed her eyes and thanked whatever gods that had intervened to warrant this perfect moment. Knowing it wasn't going to be just a single moment ever again.

Elsewhere across the city, Lena couldn't help but smile, glancing towards Winn, who shared a similar albeit more stoic expression of knowing with her before he reached over and turned off the screen providing them the feed from the streets of National City.

“You said we wouldn’t inter-”

“They deserve to be happy.”

“Then-”

“I have to be elsewhere… as do you.”

“Are you ever going to tell them you personally got Marsden to repay that favor she owed you and managed to get her to have Cat sent out here for her Christmas location briefing 'for family reasons'?” Winn questioned as Lena stopped, throwing a look over her shoulder.

"What kind of Christmas miracle would that be if they knew so soon?”


End file.
